In response to the closure of many avenues for public participation in the Middle East, many young, politically engaged Arabs have have turned to Twitter, Facebook, or the blogosphere to do politics, in conjunction with traditional forms of public sphere engagement or as a form of political participation in and of itself. The strength of these digital spaces has lead to a strong incorporation of diaspora Arabs into online Arab political communities, which creates new forms of political opportunities for diaspora Arabs, who are passionately affectively attached to their countries and communities of origin but may lack formal political rights, or the means to exercise those rights, from their position in diaspora. This paper draws from ongoing digital fieldwork on Palestinian and Egyptian diaspora communities, asking how young diaspora Arabs participate in politics 'back home,' with a focus on the relationship between (formal) citizenship and (felt) membership.
